Shuttle watchers crowd Long Beach's Bluff Park for viewing point

LONG BEACH -- A whoop went up all along Bluff Park when the Boeing 747 carrying the space shuttle Endeavour appeared in the southwestern sky.

Thousands of Long Beach residents lining the entire stretch of Bluff Park came to the shore Friday to witness the end of an era. Endeavour, the last of its generation of NASA-manned space shuttles, made its final tour of the country Friday, concluding with a low, slow pass over the Long Beach shoreline and Queen Mary before its last landing at Los Angeles International Airport.

Along Bluff Park, crowds similar in size to those that show up for fireworks shows off the Queen Mary came by to what turned out to be an excellent viewing venue.

A number of residents along the "Millionaire's Row" of homes sat on patios to view the flyby, and residents of the Galaxy Towers gathered on their decks for informal viewing parties. One would occasionally yell out updates to the crowd, many of whom were following the progress of the flight via cellular phone. At least one onlooker had a transistor radio tuned to a news station.

By 10:30 a.m., parking was filled all along Ocean Avenue and was spilling into the nearby neighborhood. A number of people complained that parking was exacerbated by Friday street sweeping.

Residents of all ages came down to the shore for the show. Some were well-prepared with chairs and food set up in shaded areas.

Carol Grimes was one of them. The grandmother from Rossmoor sat on her beach chair and knitted booties for an expected grandchild as she awaited the arrival of Endeavour.

"I want to see the end, it's been an exciting era," said the retired chemistry teacher and fan of manned space flight.

Pat Martin, a self-proclaimed science fan, drove to Long Beach from Canyon Lake in the Inland Empire with his daughters, Ava, 7, and Sophie, 4.

Martin said for years he has wanted to get close to the Endeavour, either at Edwards Air Force base or Florida, but never got the chance.

He knew it was now or never.

"The more I thought about it, I thought I'll just take (the kids) out of school and come on down," he said.

Originally, Martin had planned to go to Griffith Park, but when he heard about the crowding there, he decided on Long Beach. A former student at Cal State Long Beach, Martin was familiar with the area and knew Bluff Park would accord a good view.

Martin said he had been a fan of space travel since he was a boy and his father, who worked in aerospace, would bring home scraps from various projects.

"My dad would bring a bolt from, like, the Saturn V," Martin said. "I'd take it to school and the kids would stare at it like it was a moon rock."

Martin said he had been prepping the kids for the event, watching videos on YouTube and news coverage.

Martin said his oldest daughter had picked up his love of science, although at the moment she was more fascinated by the seemingly endless assortments of dogs that came with their owners for the event.

Former Long Beach City Councilman Mike Donelon also came to the park to watch.

"I was the first to see it, over there," he said pointing inland to where the plane may have passed on its way to fly over Disneyland.

"Sure Mike, that was a sea gull," a person nearby quipped.

"Well, if it was, it was a really big sea gull," Donelon responded.

About six residents from the Park Royale Apartments in the Alamitos Beach neighborhood convened at the park. They included 95-year-old Vivian Skidmore, who came with her granddaughter, Karal Skidmore.

Vivian has lived in Long Beach since 1921 and said she came because she's a fan of history and she was intrigued. And it was close by.

Another apartment complex resident, Carver Scott, came with her children, Benjamin, 4, and Ivy, 2.

Scott said she thought her boy might retain some memory of the event. Scott had a special interest in the Endeavour because she said she went to school in her home state of New Hampshire with the son of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died in the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.

As the Endeavour flew by, riding piggyback on a 747 and escorted by a pair of fighter planes, people cheered and took pictures or video of the historic event.

As the plane disappeared into the haze over San Pedro, the crowd began to dissipate. But one remained and continued to capture the event in his own way.

Neil Gottschalk, 66, a member of the Plein Air Painters Association, recorded the event on canvas.

The Long Beach resident has become an avid painter since his retirement and created his memory with what he called "a little Impressionist" painting.